Research - Rehabilitation - Re-Employment

Sgt. Shaft 04/17/2000

Dear Sgt. Shaft:
I've read with concern the financial plight of Gold Star spouses, many retirees, and their dependents, which have appeared in your columns. Please share the following information with your readers:

Dear Retired Sailor and Marine:
We won't announce your arrival with a drum roll and trumpets. We won't send up any flares. In fact, we'll keep your visit quiet and confidential. We operate so quietly you may not have heard of us recently. But our organization has bee around for almost 100 years, and just last year, nearly 58,000 Navy and Marine Corps families passed through our doors and walked out with more than $43 million in interest-free loans and grants, and lasting solutions to their emergency financial problems. We paid for food and shelter, vehicle repairs, household set-up, emergency transportation, funerals, medical and dental expenses, college education and lots more.

We're the staff of the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society. At our offices on about 250 Navy and Marine Corps bases ashore and afloat, more than 3,000 dedicated, trained and caring volunteers manage the majority of our programs and services. They are supported by fewer than 300 paid professionals. Our mission is to provide, in partnership with the Navy and Marine Corps, financial, educational, and other assistance to active duty and retired members of the Naval Services of the United States, and their eligible family members and survivors.

The Society also provides assistance in the form of budget counseling services, food lockers, referral services to other community resources, visiting nurses, and layettes (also called junior sea bags) for new members of your family.

How do we pay for all of the assistance we provide? The Society is a private, non-profit, charitable organization that receives funding through the Secretary of the Navy's annual active duty and retiree fund drives conducted each year during March. The Society also receives bequests, memorials, profits from the Navy Balls, investments, receipts from Thrift Shop sales, and, most significantly, the repayment of interest-free loans that our customers receive. We receive no government funding.

Please remember us each year during the annual fund drive in support of your Society and throughout the months ahead. Every dollar donated to the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society translates into financial assistance available for your shipmates and their families in time of need. Thank you. You can learn more about us by visiting our website at www.nmers.org.

John Alexander
Navy-Marine Relief Corps Society
Arlington, VA

Dear John:
Thanks for the helpful information. Hope those eligible men and women in financial straits will march to your door. And those who can, donate to this worthwhile organization.

Shaft Kudos
Thanks to friend Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) for his strong support of the $37,000,000 expansion of the Washington, D.C. VA Medical Center outpatient clinic. In a recent letter to key Veterans Affairs and Appropriations committee colleagues, Sen. Hagel stated, "Many of the 400,000 veterans residing in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area currently receive health care from the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center. Consistent with trends in the health care industry, the VA Medical Center is shifting from care provided in an inpatient setting to an outpatient, ambulatory care approach. However the building's existing configuration is not well suited for ambulatory care. The current facility, built in 1965, was designed for inpatient care. It is in need of major renovation in order to accommodate this dramatic shift in health care services."

"It is imperative that the Washington, VA Medical Center proposal for the expansion and renovation of an outpatient clinic be adequately funded. Because the District does not have a Congressional delegation, this project has not received the attention it deserves. The Center presently accommodates over 400,000 annual outpatient visits in a crowded and inefficiently designed space. The congested conditions affect staff, visitors, and patients. The proposed expansion will improve care as physicians will be able to treat veterans in a more efficient manner by consolidating services and improving the application of resources.

"... The renovation will be able to provide improved care by decreasing the average waiting time for appointments. The plan calls for a doubling of the number of exam rooms, allowing physicians to work out of two exam rooms instead of being limited to a solitary room. Extensive documentation shows the proposed project will allow existing staff to see a significant increase in patients. Doubling the number of exam rooms will also allow specialists and ancillary support to see the patient in their primary clinic. This will eliminate the need for the patient to seek out a specialist in another location within the medical center."

"Lastly, the proposed project will renovate the dialysis unit and laboratory space, which have not been refurbished since the facility opened in the early 1960s."

As a former deputy administrator of the VA, Sen. Hagel knows the needs of his fellow veterans. He joins colleague former VA Administrator Senator Max Cleland in urging this worthwhile endeavor. Also supporting the expansion of the clinic are U.S. Representatives Connie Morella (R-MD), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.), Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Albert Wynn (D-MD), James Moran (D-VA), Frank Wolf (R-VA), and Tom Davis (R-VA).

A very warm appreciation hug to Heather Renee French for devoting her reign as Miss America 2000 to raising funds and public awareness to help homeless veterans put their lives back together. The Sarge will be on hand at the National Press Club at noon on April 28 when Ms. French will address members of the press and pubic on the plight of America's homeless veterans. Those wishing to join Heather French at the National Press Club luncheon should contact Pat Nelson at (202) 662-7500.

Send letters to Sgt. Shaft, c/o John Fales, P.O. Box 65900, Washington, D.C. 20035-5900; fax to 301-622-3330; call 202-462-4430 or email sgtshaft@bavf.org.

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